Deck of Worlds
I’ve written about the Story Engine Deck before and how it’s become my go-to writing prompt generator. Coming soon is its follow-up, the Deck of Worlds, which I had the good fortune to have an early preview of, and I’m excited to show you what I’ve come up with. (Full disclosure: I am working with the decks’ creator to do some fiction writeups based on settings generated by Deck of Worlds.)
Much like its predecessor, this deck also contains different types of cards that can be drawn and combined to form a story seed. More specifically, the Deck of Worlds provides a setting, features within that setting, and prompts about the settings’ name, characteristics, origins, and possible futures. Here’s a sample draw using one of each card:
There’s a savannah, the homeland of an exiled people organized in a tribal social structure. on which there is a forgotten road. On this savannah there is a forgotten road on which a secret society is supposed to be gathering. From these details, several ideas quickly start to formulate. I like how these cards are written because they generally contain built-in entrees into character and plot creation. What kind of secret society would there be in a nation of exiles? Why would they be secret? Why are they in exile in the first place?
Here’s a more complicated draw of cards, where I stacked several modifiers and used a couple of sub-areas within the main setting:
This setting is called the Woods Where Mushrooms Grow, where it’s constantly rainy. In these woods, there is the Library of Healing and a graveyard that’s the oldest of its kind. It’s said that the woods was the site of a tragic death, and tourism has begun to damage the ecosystem. Again, so many possibilities—the interplay between life and death, healing and interment, can’t be ignored, plus there’s the clear link between the climate in this place and the kind of flora and fauna: it’s going to be quite damp, full of death and decay, so naturally, fungus. Finally, again we’re set up for a potential conflict that could drive the story and the characters within this setting.
For more sprawling stories, the Deck of Worlds can also be used to create ideas for entire worlds, by drawing several settings and building on each of them as though they all were part of the same large area. For example, here’s one I did for a setting that could be a small epic fantasy continent:
There are riverlands, mountainous areas, and a desert, and they all have different things going on. Each area has its own lore and potential avenues for conflict. There’s possible interconnectedness between the areas too, like with the mountain refugees and the vanished people from the cliffs. I’m also very drawn to the Arena of Truth where the storm of the century is brewing; it’s practically begging to be the location for an epic setpiece.
Playing around with the Deck of Worlds reminded me of this triangle graphic I found on writer Twitter. This shows how plot, characters, and the world should interplay in a way that each one influences and is influenced by the other two.
I’ve tried to track down the source for attribution purposes, and it seems to have originated from this Tumblr user. Though that account now appears defunct, the graphic still lives on as a repost in this link.
In my prior novel projects, plot and character came to mind first, before the world. That seems to be my inclination though I did try (and I hope I succeeded) to make sure that the worlds are not just background aesthetic, and that the worlds that I built had bearing on how the characters behave and on how the plot advances. Of course, there’s no one right way to go about it, and it’s copacetic as long as there’s that tight interplay as the triangle shows. But I’m glad to be kind of taken out of my comfort zone by Deck of Worlds, which makes me cook up stories starting with a setting first. What’s this world like > what kind of people does a particular setting create > what kind of problems would those people have? That’s not a typical brainstorming pattern for me, and it’s frankly quite refreshing.
As a final note, I’m credited as a Setting Writer for the Deck of Worlds, and when it comes out, the final product will have some original content from yours truly. But this blog post is not an ad, and I’m not making a commission or anything from boosting the Kickstarter. I’d back this project and support this content creator even if I weren’t involved, simply because it is a solid product that has helped me generate ideas and get words on paper. If you’re so inclined, you can back the project by following this link.
Thumbnail image courtesy of Deck of Worlds (c) 2021. The three photos are from my phone. Graphic source unknown, as noted.